Michelin Launches New Service Designed to Reduce Wrong-Way Driving Crashes

MICHELIN DDi^® wants to help both drivers and road authorities make a U-turn on the rising wrong-way crash trend with its latest service, Wrong Way, which is directed at making roads and travel even safer for drivers.

With a concerning increase in road fatalities due to wrong way driving in the past few years in the U.S. , this latest service – part of the  Safer Roads suite of services – is designed to help identify the locations where wrong-way driving is happening. Typically, these events often lead to crashes that are head-on collisions and frequently involve several vehicles, resulting in multiple fatalities and severe injuries.

“Research has found that  there are several factors which can be associated with wrong-way driving,” said Erik Dietz, Chief Operating Officer for MICHELIN DDi. “Road design is not the only root cause increasing the risk of wrong-way driving events but it can be a key contributing factor. With this new service, we want to help road managers by arming them with life-saving data and insights on wrong-way driving hotspots, empowering them to prevent further incidents in their network.”

How it works:

Based on data collected from more than 40 million connected drivers in North America, MICHELIN DDi provides actionable insights with this new service, which focuses strictly on wrong-way driving. This service not only detects and locates  wrong-way driving events, it also provides unique and precise information on the point of entry, the distance and duration of the incident. Wrong Way enables road managers to identify and assess wrong way driving issues in their network and empowers them to adopt a preventative approach by taking appropriate measures and allocating efficiently their resources to help eliminate potential issues.

“The wrong way driving event identification can be paired with our current data-collection efforts from other driving events we capture, such as harsh braking and phone handling while driving, to better assess the context of these occurrences,” said Dietz. “This is a great opportunity for municipalities and governments to identify wrong-way hotspots, which can help them act before crashes occur by implementing changes when road design or signage is involved in the identified areas. It is a step further towards Vision Zero by helping to reduce crashes as a result of wrong way driving events and save more lives.”

Wrong Way will debut March 22-23 at the Autonomy Mobility World Expo in Paris, the largest gathering of international organizations dedicated to urban mobility solutions. The program will be implemented in North America and followed by other Michelin regions in Europe.